“Significant achievements”- Simon Jordan says why Nottingham Forest would be better off in the Europa League
Nottingham Forest will fight for Champions League qualification until the final day against Chelsea, but according to Simon Jordan, they may be best-placed fighting it out in the Europa League.
After it was made official that the Premier League would have five Champions League spots, Forest’s chances of Continental football in some form became very high.
Of course, the top five is still the aim, and Steve Cooper backs Forest’s Champions League chances, but one win in five in the Premier League has made the lesser European competitions a real possibility.
Alan Shearer thinks Forest will miss out on the Champions League, but if Reds fans buy into what Simon Jordan has just said on talkSPORT, this might end up being the preferred outcome.
Simon Jordan on the ‘significant achievement’ of Europa League qualification
Speaking on his regular show with Jim White, Jordan first discussed how he rates Nuno Espirito Santo’s side’s chances of Champions League qualification.
Jordan said: “My nose tells me they’re slightly drifting away [from the Champions League], they wouldn’t have expected to get one point from the last two games.
“[…] If you’d have said to Forest: ‘What do you want to take out of these two games?’ They’d have probably at least anticipated three points, maybe four. To only get one puts them in a difficult position.”
However, it wasn’t all doom and gloom from the presenter, though, who expressed his opinion on the advantages for the Forest squad of Europa League qualification.
He continued: “I think, in the cold light of day, there would be a reflection that this is still quite a significant achievement for Nottingham Forest, it’s still a building block and maybe actually a tournament that Nottingham Forest could go very deep in.
“[…] If they get a Europa League spot, then I would say there’s a lot to be happy with, irrespective of where you think you should be.”
Europa League football at the City Ground would still be a brilliant achievement for the club, but it might feel a bit flat initially. For Jordan, though, there’s one key reason why Espirito Santo’s side wouldn’t qualify for the Champions League.
Simon Jordan on the one factor at fault for Nottingham Forest’s dip
Jordan predicted Forest to be relegated, so perhaps his predictions aren’t worth looking into too deeply, but his point about why the Reds have suffered a drop in form is worth considering.
On the same show, he said: “Forest are slightly beginning to wane. Whether that’s the vigour of the season or whether it’s my argument, which certain Forest fans didn’t like, which is that you are operating at 100% attainment.
“To be able to achieve that level week in week out is remarkably difficult and maybe there was going to be some point […] where there was going to be a drop off, because nobody can operate at 100% all the time.”
We’re starting to see the extent of this with the likes of Callum Hudson-Odoi picking up injuries and Chris Wood not quite firing at the same rate as earlier in the season.
Whatever the Reds manage this season will still be something to celebrate, but perhaps the relentless excellence that Espirito Santo and the Forest coaching staff have displayed can only be kept up for so long.
